Review Detail

The first installment in the Bea Catcher Chronicles is a high-stakes mystery that will keep you enthralled and guessing until the very end.

Bad-girl turned recovering-addict Bea Washington discovers an unnerving and ultimately useful supernatural ability: she can literally draw the truth out of people's minds. When a series of rapes and murders threaten the safety of her hometown, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Bea takes matters into her own hands to solve the cases and catch the killer before can strike again.

Bea has an invested interest in saving the teenage girls of Ann Arbor - she was too stoned the previous summer to answer the plea for help from a victim in the the local arboretum. With a dead girl's cries haunting her mind, Bea searches for clues, stalks suspects, and interrogates the only surviving victim. Sergeant Daniels from the local police tries to keep Bea off the case - she could get in serious trouble for interfering with police business. But the curious attraction between Bea and Daniels gets in the way of that.

I loved Bea's attitude and how snarky she was. The girl knows what she wants and will do whatever she has to in order to get it. That doesn't mean she falls right back into using. Getting an inside look at Bea's mind as she struggles with the desire to use again was fascinating. She compares the need for alcohol to trying to stop a speeding train every second of the day. That and more insights into the mind of a recovering addict are the best parts of the book.

The mystery aspect is nothing to leave out, however. Bea is constantly getting herself in trouble and throwing herself at dangerous situations and people. She is inherently generous and caring, and often puts her own life on the line to find out everything she can about the killer. She wants to stop him, and she'll do anything to catch him. Bea's story is exciting, strange, and definitely a page-turner!